The Unified Government on Tuesday afternoon responded with an explanation about the Argentine area flash flood on Sunday.
Edwin Birch, UG spokesman, said the public works department has told him that two storm water pump stations in Argentine were working properly at the time of the flood.
On Monday, Commissioner Ann Brandau Murguia questioned why the Argentine area was flooding on Sunday and in some past storms. She stated that a pump was not working on Strong Avenue, and there was a couple of feet of water in the street. Once a pump was turned on by a worker, she said the water receded quickly. The commissioner made a video of the flooding and posted it on her Facebook page. She is requesting a UG meeting with residents. Some residents said they have documented that a pump was off during the flooding.
Birch said if the pump systems were off, a system would notify the UG of it.
Those two Argentine pumps did not cover Argentine Boulevard west of 34th Street, which was not considered to be in a flood plain, the UG stated in its newsletter and on Facebook.
The UG sent a drone over the Argentine area during the flooding Sunday, according to the newsletter, and the UG has its own video of the flooding.
The UG statement today blamed the heavy rains in a short period of time. “The culprit in the recent flooding incidents is the weather,” the UG stated in its newsletter.